Fast food logos make us want stuff NOW!

Humans – are we really a collection of free-thinking individuals, unswayed by external influences? Or are we just a rambling gang of Pavlovian dogs, there to be manipulated by cunning marketeers?

Some recent research suggests that it’s the latter. A study by some boffins in Toronto has shown that just looking at the logos of fast food companies can trigger the kind of behaviour that they suggest – namely instant gratification.

The Consumerist report that “Participants who looked at fast-food logos and were asked whether they'd like to get less money now or more in a week said they wanted the cash now. Those who looked at more generic images were willing to wait.”

The boffins concluded that “Fast food seemed to have made people impatient in a manner that could put their economic interest at risk,” and that “logos or other situational cues all have the same type of effect of "automaticity" -- [triggering] regulatory behaviour that is beyond our control.”